I then went and threw the front door wide open. Burke jumped as if I had unexpectedly fired a shot at him.
"Come in," said I, dryly.
He stared unblinkingly at me for a moment, but during that moment he recovered his equanimity, and became again his customary inscrutable self. It would perhaps be too much to say that the color returned to his face, for it was colorless at all times. However, I knew that for once I had caught the man off his guard.
I surveyed him with derisive contempt.
"I didn't expect to find you here," he said at length.
"And all whom you did expect to find have gone," returned I. "But that's no reason why we should stand holding the door open and filling the house with cold. Come in."
"I don't understand you," said he, hesitating a second longer; "I was looking for no one."
I glanced out for some sign of Stodger, but saw nothing of him. Then I closed the door and placed my back against it.
"Perhaps no one in particular," I observed. "Neither did you anticipate encountering such a forbiddingly empty house. Look here, Burke, what did you come back for?"
His eyes might have been actually sightless, his pallid features a lifeless mask, for all the expression they conveyed; there was absolutely no facial sign by which I could even determine whether I commanded his attention; but his hands were never quiet, the slender, nervous fingers twitched unceasingly.